BOYERTOWN — Basketball teams talk about protecting their home court, and none have done it better than the Boyertown girls in their own Holiday Tournament. The Bears ran their string of championships to four in a row Friday night as they shot well and created offense with their aggressive defense in a 60-39 win over Bangor.

Boyertown (7-2) forced 15 Slater turnovers in the first half and Kaitlyn Eisenhard scored 16 points in the second half to finish with a game-high 25. Morgan McCollian topped Bangor (5-2) with 14 points and 10 rebounds, eight of them on the offensive board.

“It feels great to win,” Eisenhard said concerning another home tournament two-game sweep. “Every year since I’ve been a freshman. We always protect our home court.”

“We always talk about protecting our home court,” said Bears coach Jason Bieber, whose team beat Bangor by a 44-25 score in last year’s final.

Advertisement

Kaitlyn DeHaven, Dee Terry, and Alyssa Cotellese all came up with early steals for Boyertown as the hosts opened up a 12-4 advantage in the first 4˝ minutes.

“Our offense always comes off of our defense,” said Eisenhard. “When we can run around like crazy and get steals, it’s always good to get tips and steals and get turnovers because it creates our offense.”

“We knew we could get after them,” said Bieber. “We had a lot of nice rotation.”

Boyertown also hit consistently from the perimeter early as Jordan Webb came off the bench and connected on a pair of 3-pointers and the Bears wound up at 50 percent from the floor in the first half (12-for-24) on the way to a 34-19 margin at the intermission.

“We haven’t been shooting too well from the outside,” said Eisenhard. “Tonight was great. It was very good that Jordan hit a couple of shots. It’s really nice that we have depth off our bench.”

“It’s really been hit or miss,” Bieber said concerning the Bears’ marksmanship from the floor. “We shoot like we did tonight or we miss everything. We have a lot of young kids. If they hit a shot early, that gives them confidence for the rest of the game. Last night Jordan was a real big spark for us defensively, and tonight she hit a couple of big shots.”

Bangor managed to stay in the game for about a quarter and a half – trailing by just 21-15 with 4:09 to go until the intermission – thanks to some good work on the offensive board and 12 points by McCollian.

“Before the game, our goal was to hold them to less than 10 points on offensive rebounds and transition points,” said Bieber. “They already had 11 in the first quarter.”

But the Bears began to cut down on the easy Bangor points and started to pick up some of their own as Eisenhard put back an offensive rebound and then scored off an inbounds pass from Terry. Cotellese followed with two free throws and Webb knocked down a three-point bomb from the left wing. And suddenly Boyertown was on a nine-point run, good for a 30-15 lead with 1:50 to go until the half.

Then the Bears started to go inside to Eisenhard in the second half and she responded by scoring nine points in the third quarter and seven in the fourth and making it to the line for six free throws.

“They were making really nice passes to me,” said Eisenhard. “Then they started collapsing and we were able to kick it out. Overall, a good passing game.”

Generally, the only sore point for the winners was the rebounding as Bangor wound up with a 35-24 margin in that department after building a 21-10 edge in the first half.

“I think it got better as the game went on,” said Eisenhard.

“We did improve our rebounding in the second half,” Bieber added. “We need to get back to the way we played defense two years ago.”

Eisenhard missed only one shot from the floor in the second half and finished 9-for-13, grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, and also had a couple of steals that led to baskets early in the game.

“We’ve been talking to her about being out there and being our leader,” Bieber said concerning the 6-foot-1 senior. “Whatever she needs to do, she does.”